


All the Right Reasons

by ataraxetta



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Barebacking, Explicit Sexual Content, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Porn with Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2017-11-06
Packaged: 2019-01-30 04:15:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12645912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ataraxetta/pseuds/ataraxetta
Summary: Warp training is hard on Noct. Noct warp training is hard on Nyx. Luckily they're pretty good at comforting each other.





	All the Right Reasons

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fic I've completed in over a year, so I apologize in advance for the quality. I apologize less sincerely for the mass amounts of sap, and even less sincerely than that for the gratuitous Noct whump. Writing Nyx was a ton of fun, though! I might have to try again in future!
> 
> Also, a resounding thank you to concernedlily for the beta. :)

**All the Right Reasons**

Any of the Kingsglaive could tell you that warping was rough as balls. It was a strain unlike anything else Nyx had ever experienced, on parts Nyx hadn't previously known had existed. Half the 'glaives would end up on their knees heaving up a week’s worth of lunches up after a full training session, including Nyx, who had taken to it better than most. Even Drautos, who made it look natural and easy and fun, graceful as a dance, could be found hurling into the bushes after a rough battle. It wasn't natural, or easy, or fun and it didn't feel so much like dancing as it did like being turned inside out, chewed up and spit back out again. 

Physically it was demanding, exhausting, draining, toed the lines of possibility. Mentally it was downright appalling. Weaving in and out of existence like that, tying literally every atom of your matter to a blade and following it out of time and back into it again? Human biology wasn't made for that. Man didn't work that way; the mind sure as hell didn't work that way, and forcing a square peg into a round hole like that had consequences, no matter how much experience a body had doing it. Warping was hard on anyone, any day of the week. 

But gods, what it did to Noct.

Nyx opened the door to the sight of him plastered to Gladio’s side, more unconscious than not, in mid-calf fatigues, combat boots and a regulation overcoat with a blank ID badge, which meant it was an extra from the storeroom. He was five-foot-eight of bird bones and just enough muscle mass packed onto them to make him dense and cumbersome to carry, but judging from the look on Gladio’s face it was Noct who insisted on making the trek from the Citadel grounds to his apartment near the university on his own feet. Also going off the look on Gladio’s face, being allowed to make that bad call had served as punishment enough. The real mystery was whether Gladio was born with that expression of equal parts irritation and concern in his arsenal or if it had been cultivated especially over the years by too much time spent in the company of stubborn princes with no self-preservation skills.

Gladio said, "Hey," and Noct croaked a feeble, "I’m fine," and Nyx said "Right," and helped Gladio get him inside.

From there to the bedroom Noct was mostly a hinderance and an unapologetic one, demanding to take a shower before he hit the sack and then fidgety and grumpy when Nyx and Gladio overruled him through sheer iron will and the convenient advantage they had over him of being able to walk upright. He'd be out like a light the second he was horizontal, but he complained all the way down the hall and into the bedroom anyway and sullenly turned his face away from Nyx's hand when Nyx tried to push his sweaty hair off his forehead, and pointedly leaned closer to Gladio for the last few wobbly steps to his bed. 

Nyx had to bite his lip on the smile that wanted to break out on his face before Noct noticed it, some vague idea of not wanting to reward bratty behavior in toddlers in his head. The amusement drained away pretty quickly when Noct's breath hitched with obvious pain as they lowered him down to the mattress. Gladio said, "Careful, his back."

Nyx said, "Yeah."

Together they carefully stripped him of the boots, Kingsglaive coat, and loose fatigues and settled him on his front in his bed. The gash of scar tissue that took up most of his back was swollen and red, sore-looking, almost like the wound was fresh, and Noct whimpered in his sleep as his abused muscles spasmed beneath it. Helpless to do anything else, Nyx and Gladio left him to rest, retreating to the kitchen to talk.

"He spent a few hours with Captain Drautos this morning," Gladio told him.

Nyx winced. Noct had been training with various members of their outfit for almost three years now, but there was something about working with a civilian that made most of them go easy on him. Drautos wasn’t burdened by any such weakness, though, and even the 'glaive had learned to dread the occasional drills run by their Captain. He wouldn’t have sugarcoated anything, even for a soldier so wet behind the ears. Even for a Prince.

"Well shit," Nyx said. Gladio grunted his agreement, arms crossed over his chest. He looked tired. Nyx grabbed a couple bottles of water out of the fridge and passed one over, and as Gladio downed most of it in one go Nyx fumbled for smalltalk, ended up saying, "You’d think it wouldn’t be so bad for him, since it comes naturally."

You'd think that the kid could catch that much of a break, at least. Gladio frowned, his eyes on Nyx a little too hard to Nyx’s comfort. After a few long moments in which Nyx pretended there was something fascinating about his fingernail, Gladio replied, "I think it’s so bad _because_ it comes naturally." He sighed, and he wasn't staring anymore when Nyx chanced a glance up at him. "I asked my dad and he said His Majesty had a hard time with it too, and it’s worse for Noct because of... "

He waved a hand in the air to encompass the daemon attack that nearly took Noct’s life at eight years old and the injury that followed and everything else _that_ entailed. Nyx said, "Yeah."

"Yeah," Gladio said. They were quiet for a long few moments, nodding glumly at each other, and then Gladio repeated, "Yeah," like a lead-in to something and his eyes snapped over to Nyx again, pinned him like a butterfly. He carried on conversationally, "So, hey, you seem to know your way around Noct’s apartment pretty well."

Nyx countered, "You didn’t seem all that surprised to find me here," a little too quickly, and made a face at himself ( _Way to play it cool, dumbass_ ). Gladio raised an eyebrow that might or might not have been mocking - he had the kind of eyebrows that said a lot, and Nyx didn't know him well enough to translate all the time, but after a few seconds Gladio's mouth quirked into a grin. Definitely mocking, then. Nyx pointedly didn't shuffle his wooly-socked feet like a sullen kid despite the urge to. 

It wasn't a big deal, not really, but Nyx was cautious for a reason. Gladio Amicitia was a good guy that Nyx knew well enough after a few years of quarterly joint drills and the occasional joint op, but he wasn't Nyx’s friend, and this had never been Nyx’s call to make. He cleared his throat. "Look, man - "

"Hey, I’m just messin’ with you," Gladio cut him off, grin softening a little, and relief hit Nyx like a punch to the gut. He let out a breath and sagged back against the kitchen island. Gladio laughed, but it wasn't mean.

"I didn’t know if Noct had told you or not," Nyx admitted, compelled to explain himself but uncertain how far he should go.

"He told us," said Gladio. Nyx manfully ignored the little pool of warmth that formed in his chest. Gladio added, "And even if he hadn’t, he's not that subtle. And even if he was, you’d have a hard time getting anything past Iggy." Nyx made another face, and Gladio clapped him companionably on the shoulder when he passed to drop his empty water bottle in the recycling bin in the pantry. "I gotta go, I'm on duty in half an hour."

"Sure," said Nyx, trying not to sound relieved. "Hey, thanks for…"

Gladio snorted. Nyx had no idea what that meant. Gladio said, "Listen, your secret’s safe with us. Even Prompto can keep his mouth shut when he needs to."

"I, uh. Thanks," Nyx repeated.

"Not doing it for you," Gladio said bluntly.

"Right, yeah," said Nyx. "But still, thanks."

Gladio stepped back and gave Nyx a look like there was a lot he wanted to say, but then seemed to decide against it. His lips pressed together in a thin line and then broke apart when he exhaled deeply, and he gave Nyx a nod and then headed for the door. "Anyway, like I said, I'm on duty tonight. I wasn’t bringing him home, I was bringing him to you. So, you got ‘im?"

This kid had never seen live combat, never been outside these city walls, and Nyx had four years and nightmares of experience on him. No matter how actually, ridiculously humongous he was, Nyx could take him in his sleep, but the question sort of sounded like a threat. Sort of felt like a threat, too. Nyx could roll with that. He looked back over his shoulder, down the hall off the living room to the cracked bedroom door, could just make out Noct’s shadow on white sheets from this angle. He hoped his face didn't look as doofy as he was pretty sure it did when he turned back to Gladio and answered, "Yeah, I got 'im."

 

*

 

He spent the rest of the day with bad TV and laundry, taking advantage of the in-unit washer and dryer and feeling like a goddamn king for it until late afternoon, when he checked in on Noct and found him sitting up in bed bleary-eyed and sleep-hazy. Nyx rapped his knuckles on the doorjamb gently and it took Noct a few seconds to follow the sound and look over.

"Nyx," he said. His voice was thick and drowsy, a siren’s call that had Nyx pushing off the doorframe and crossing over to him.

"That’s me," Nyx said.

Noct pushed his hair off his face clumsily and then rubbed his eyes. "Hey."

Nyx nodded. "Hey yourself. How’re you feelin’?"

"Tired. Sore." Noct took a quick stock of himself and made a face, adding, "and all sticky and gross." He threw Nyx a dark look. "I wanted to shower first."

"Yeah, you need it." He jerked his chin toward the living room. "Could smell you from out there. Had to open a window"

"Fuck off," said Noct, turning his head to hide a grin in his shoulder. He was still three shades too pale and Nyx could see the tremble in his hands, the fatigue that tightened the corners of his mouth. He wasn't surprised when Noct shoved the covers off and tried to get up. He wasn't surprised when Noct didn't quite make it on his own, either. Nyx was there to steady him when he stumbled, Noct looking preciously shocked to find his legs reluctant to hold him up.

"Hey, go easy, cowboy," Nyx told him. Once he was reasonably sure Noct's legs could support him again he grinned and tipped Noct's chin up with a gentle hand, thumbed over the point of his chin. "Okay? Got your sea legs?"

"What does that even mean?" Noct scoffed and Nyx laughed, drew him in closer, careful of his back, careful all around and probably more than he needed to be. A hand curled into the back of Nyx’s t-shirt and held on and Nyx let out a shuddery sigh, dipping his head to nose at the slope of Noct’s neck.

"I must’ve looked really bad," Noct murmured, and light fingers tugged at one of the plaits in Nyx’s hair. Nyx pulled back with a grin, tipped his head down to rest their foreheads together.

"Yeah, you looked pretty wrecked, kiddo," he conceded. The weakness in his own voice sort of scared him.

Noct obviously didn't know how to respond to that, because he didn't bother to, but he let Nyx hold him for another half-minute before he got restless and pulled away. He regarded Nyx curiously, scrubbing his hand through the back of his hair. "I’m okay. You've got - what do you call it - abandonment issues, y'know?"

The _because of what happened to your family in Galahd_ was silent. Nyx raised an unimpressed eyebrow and offered, "And you don't have much in the way of tact, Your Highness."

Noct scrunched his nose up, and when he said, "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that," it was genuine, his eyes rounding with concern as they searched Nyx's face.

"No? How'd you mean it, then?" Nyx prodded, and then laughed at Noct's helpless, tortured expression and the hand he flapped between them as he floundered to explain himself.

"Shut up," Noct said, embarrassed, which made Nyx laugh more. He caught Noct's hand and Noct stepped in close again. "I just mean you don't have to worry every time. I'm not going anywhere."

Nyx felt the grin on his face go all soft. Words weren't really Noct's forte, but it meant a lot to hear them, the reassurance, the sentiment behind them. Nyx said, "Yeah?"

Noct smiled shyly, knocking their foreheads together gently. "Yeah. Except the bathroom. Gonna shower."

"You should rest more," said Nyx.

"Shower," Noct repeated. He tilted his head and quirked a smile. "You should join me."

A beat. Two. Nyx said, "Yeah, all right."

 

*

 

Sleep was hard to come by that night. Nyx managed to snag only a few hours between troubled dreams, and by the time 5am rolled around he was wide awake, still tired, and restless as hell. He lay there for few more minutes trying to relax before giving it up as a lost cause, resigned to a too-early morning and thinking to slip out of bed before he disturbed his better half, maybe make a cup of tea and head out into Prince Noctis’s private balcony garden and watch the sunrise, but Noct roused when Nyx moved to get up. 

There was a rustle of sheets and then from behind a small mountain of comforter that Nyx's tossing and turning during the night had bunched up between them emerged a head full of messy black hair, followed by heavy-lidded blue eyes that sought him out through the darkness and a mumbly, "Nyx?"

"Yeah," Nyx replied, voice pitched quiet as the morning and saturated with an embarrassing amount of affection. Instead of getting up he relaxed back into a half-recline on the pillows he'd propped against the headboard and stretched out to make room for a clumsy and endearingly disoriented Noct to shuffle up close."Yeah, darlin'. Just me."

"Mm." Noct's eyes were hardly open, and his words tumbled from his mouth in a lazy lilt. "Just you. You 'kay?"

"A-okay," Nyx told him. Noct nestled comfortably into Nyx's side with a yawn and Nyx curled his arm around Noct’s shoulders to card fingers through his wild hair until his eyes closed, grazed a kiss to his brow, soothing his boy back down. "Sorry I woke you. Go back to sleep."

"Mm," Noct said again, propping himself up on an elbow the better to study Nyx. He was a mess, hair tufting everywhere in tumpty spikes, seam from the sheets imprinted into his face from temple to jaw, one of his eyes still mostly stuck closed with eye gunk that he rubbed away with a fist like a goddamn kid as he yawned and tipped his face up for a kiss. He was fucking gorgeous, morning breath and all, and Nyx brushed their lips together in something simple and chaste before he took Noct's mouth slowly. Noct wasn't easy to wake by a matter of course, but he always came alive under Nyx's mouth. His lips parted for Nyx's tongue and his hands slid up Nyx's chest, bedclothes slipping down his shoulders to pool at his waist as he moved. 

Nyx let his own wander the planes of Noct's slender back, grazing over sensitive scar tissue and trailed his lips down Noct's pale throat when Noct broke the kiss with a shivery moan at the sensation. He sucked a mark into Noct's collarbone and stroked up the length of his thigh, following the movement as he rolled on top and spread his legs to straddle Nyx's hips. Nyx pulled back enough to looked up at him. In the pre-dawn light Noct looked pale, the circles under his eyes even deeper, the kiss-bruised red of his lips even fuller. Nyx sat up properly and Noct kissed him again, and again, deep drowning kisses that made Nyx's head hazy and his chest ache. He spread his thighs a little to open Noct's legs a little more and cradled Noct's head to his neck when their cocks rubbed together, both of them hard.

"Nyx," Noct said, quiet and intimate. He kissed the side of Nyx's throat and the spot just under his ear, the height of Nyx's cheekbone and the corner of his mouth and Nyx's bottom lip, nipping softly there.

"Noct," Nyx said, in exactly the same tone. As Noct started to rock gently against him Nyx stretched his fingers out wide as he palmed down Noct's flanks and the sharp wings of his hipbones and then groped handfuls of Noct's round ass, matching his rhythm. "Fuck, Noct."

Noct sighed luxuriously, one hand resting on the nape of Nyx's neck, digging little fingernail imprints into his skin. He reached the other between them to take their cocks in hand, both of them drippy and wet now, scent of sex already rising in the air. Nyx swore and took Noct's smug smiling mouth again with his own, kissed him breathless so Noct was panting when he said, "Nyx, god, I want you in me, fuck me."

Nyx knocked over a tube of lip balm and the little bedside lamp on Noct's nightstand fumbling for the handle to the drawer and the lube inside and Noct laughed, raspy and so sweet Nyx couldn't help but drag him down for another kiss, lifting his knees to pull Noct closer still. Noct stopped stroking them and cupped Nyx's cheek with his fingers wet with pre-come, stroked them back through Nyx's loose hair, thoughtless little shit, (like Nyx hadn't washed much worse out of it before), and he whimpered like nothing had ever felt so good when Nyx tucked two fingers inside where he was already loose and open from hours ago. He let his head fall back and moaned Nyx's name and _fuck_ but Nyx loved him. Nyx loved Noct so much it felt too big for words, his heart too full for his chest, pounding with it.

When he was ready, Noct lowered himself onto Nyx's aching hard prick with a sharp inhale and held it there. Nyx knew Noct loved this part, the first stretch, holding just the head of Nyx's cock inside, hole clutching and yielding in turns as he inched down the full length. Nyx slid his hands over sweat-slick skin, teased the hard peaks of Noct's nipples and let his fingers tease just under Noct's arms, he threads the fingers of both hands into Noct's hair and kissed him hard to keep all the sappy crap safely in Nyx's head instead of falling out of his mouth the way it wanted to. 

Fully seated on Nyx's cock, Noct said, " _Nyx_ , fuck, you feel —" 

"Good, _Six_ , baby, you feel so good," Nyx said, babbling in a voice embarrassingly husky, but honest. Noct was so hot inside, hot and tight and _so good_ , and watching him when he so clearly felt good was a gift all on its own. Noct's cheeks were pink and his sweat-damp hair stuck to his forehead and cheeks. His hands trembled as he braced himself on Nyx's chest and started to move. Nyx fell back into his recline, hands dropping to Noct's hips, toes curling from pleasure, gaze moving from Noct's pretty cock to his heaving chest to the slope of his neck to the bliss on his face as he rode Nyx in a slow, sure rise and fall that had Nyx digging his fingers into Noct's hips and Noct breathing in quiet little rapturous sobs. 

Nyx lost track of time, his whole world narrowed down to the tight clutch of Noct's body and the arch of Noct's back and Noct's voice and Noct's hands on his stomach and his chest and his face, Noct's rhythm faltering as he leaned down to smother sweet whimpers with another kiss. Nyx's hands found Noct's quivering thighs and he pushed himself up again, guided Noct to wrap his legs around Nyx's hips and rolled them, swallowing Noct's bereft cry as he slipped out and licking the moan right out of Noct's mouth when he lined up and pushed back in. He ran ticklish fingers up Noct's sides and Noct gasped and wriggled and arched away, wrapped his arms around Nyx's neck and shoved himself harder down onto Nyx's cock. He was saying, "Fuck me, fuck me, shit, Nyx, I'm gonna come," and Nyx grinned and mouthed over the pulse point in Noct's throat. He found the leverage to dick in hard, deeper, faster, until Noct tensed up all over and came, spilling hotly between them, clenching down around Nyx's cock so tight Nyx stilled inside him. 

Nyx found one of Noct's hands clutching the sheets and coaxed it loose. He brought Noct's hand to his mouth to kiss the knuckles and palm and drew it back over Noct's head, pinning it lightly to the pillow with his own, their fingers twining. He eased Noct back up with tender kisses and sweet touches, fucked him slowly and held him close through oversensitive aftershocks that had Noct's legs tightening around Nyx and his ass clamping down around Nyx's cock and sent Nyx rushing headlong into an orgasm that made his vision white out.

When it came back Noct was watching him, all but purring like a cat underneath him, playing with the loose hair Nyx hadn't bothered to plait after their shower that afternoon. His quirky little smile called for another kiss, which he accepted with a pleased murmur before he got restless and shoved lightly at Nyx's chest, already reaching for the box of tissues on the nightstand to clean them up. After, he allowed Nyx to tug him back into his arms, and Nyx lay back with Noct draped over him, head resting on the center of Nyx's chest as they watched the sunrise through the spectacular view Noct's apartment offered. More to Nyx's surprise than anyone's, he fell asleep just like that.

 

*

 

Around ten, sitting across from each other at the little wrought iron table on Noct's private balcony with their feet in each other's laps as they shared crappy convenience store muffins and bad coffee for breakfast, Noct said, "Why couldn't you sleep last night?"

Nyx finished chewing, biting just right into a chocolate chip and appreciating the way the neck of his shirt kept falling off Noct's shoulder and the casual way Noct fixed it each time. His nightmares and ghosts seemed sillier in the daylight, but somehow more real, invisible battle scars kept to himself, and now entrusted to Noct as well. Noct's expression was soft and very still, cautious the way Noct would probably always be with that crown hanging over his head. Eventually, he said, "You don't have to tell me. I mean, just...y'know, if you wanna talk."

He meant it, which in turn meant the world to Nyx. He was better at expressing himself than Noct was, but could admit that it wasn't by much. His eyes were stinging and he didn't really even know why. He wasn't close to crying. The burn was almost a comfort. Nyx said, "You know that saying we've got in the 'glaive?"

"For Hearth and Home?" Noct asked. "Yeah. It's about Galahd, isn't it?"

"Not just Galahd. Not for me, anymore. Turns out home has a new address, lately," Nyx said. He rubbed the back of his neck ruefully, and thought of what Gladio had told him the day before, about Noct telling his friends about them. "I hate to see you hurting like that, kid."

Noct's mouth opened but he didn't say anything. His cheeks went pink. Nyx really just loved the ever living fuck out of him. After a few seconds Noct cleared his throat, twice, and said, "Oh."

Nyx pushed the leg of Noct's lounge pants up his leg, baring his ankle to rub his thumb in slow circles around the knot and Noct rested his head back against the back cushion of his chair. He grinned when Nyx chucked a piece of muffin at him, eyes crossing to watch it bounce off his chest and then the side of the chair and tumble onto the ground, where it was immediately devoured by the annoying bird that had been milling around all morning.

Nyx took a slow breath. "Listen, you gotta promise me something," he said. Noct watched him curiously. Like a hawk. Nyx said, "You can't die on me, man, okay? You gotta promise me."

Noct huffed a little laugh. "I will if you will."

"Fuck off," said Nyx.

Noct laughed again, dimples pushing into his cheeks with his smile. He pulled his feet out of Nyx's lap and sat up, shimmying his chair closer when Nyx did the same. Nyx reached for him and Noct took his hand, threaded their fingers. Nyx leaned forward and Noct pressed a kiss to his forehead before resting their brows together. "How about we take it one day at a time? I promise I won't die on you today."

Nyx smiled, sadness and hope swelling in his chest in equal measures. The red shine of the Crystal was bright in the background, looming over both their heads. "I promise I won't die on you today," Nyx agreed.

One day at a time. 

It would have to do.

 

**the end.**

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
